Cancelling gym membership - continue training at home
Discussion
Art0ir said:
RobM77 said:
Art0ir said:
Aphex said:
I used to have a personal trainer and he was a big fan of them.Art0ir said:
RobM77 said:
I used to have a personal trainer and he was a big fan of them. Definitely, yes. I think if someone wants to lose weight though, rather than training for sports, it's perhaps simpler and easier to start with suggesting some CV. I didn't mean to infer that kettle bells are a bad thing, they're great, it's just that you need to be working to the right intensity and in the right way, and it involves buying stuff, whereas if someone just wants to lose weight it's simplest to get some fresh air and exercise and eat healthily.
Thanks for the advice guys, especially RobM77. I'm not too fussed about building muscle, but would like to retain it and build core strength for other sports. At the gym I'd do 1 or 2 CV sessions a week, one mainly weights session and a swim, so I'm hoping to keep that that up, maybe with more cycling, as I enjoy it more and as has been mentioned, CV is probably better for the losing weight part of my goal.
I'm going to look at the TRX things, as I've never seen those, I'll ask my girlfriend about kettlebells, as I know she has used them a few times when she had a personal trainer (she has also cancelled her gym membership, so will be using this equipment too).
I'm going to look at the TRX things, as I've never seen those, I'll ask my girlfriend about kettlebells, as I know she has used them a few times when she had a personal trainer (she has also cancelled her gym membership, so will be using this equipment too).
RobM77 said:
CV: OP: If you want to lose weight and drop body fat, then just do CV. Run, cycle or walk regularly and if your calorie burning exceeds your intake, you'll lose weight, it's as simple as that.
Resistance: If you want to put on or retain muscle as well (which can be a good idea for preventing injury doing other sports, or of course just vanity, plus you'll get a small increase in resting metabolic rate with muscle, but it's smaller than most weight training guys claim - IIRC research shows about 10-15% for people who do heavy weights; there are papers online showing these results), then obviously you'll need to do resistance training, which obviously requires a bit more imagination at home. I also quit the gym years ago and do the following for resistance at home:
Chin ups: I bought a bar that screws into a doorway from Argos for about £20-£30. You can get frame things that you can take on and off, but the bar's sturdier, safer and does less damage to the door. Mine's on the study door, where guests never go, and you can't see it from the hallway with the door shut, so it's very discreet.
Press Ups: Obviously you can do these anywhere. Try putting your feet on something for a bit of variation, although be prepared to be told off if you put your feet on the work top
You can even do handstand pressups with your feet on a wall, but work up to these as they're quite hard work and you can pull a shoulder muscle if you're not used to them (as I did once..). You can also vary pressups by changing the distance between your hands, or put your hands together and do a tricep pressup (I'm sure there's a video somewhere on the web for these).
Crunches etc - loads on the web for these. The cross crunch where your knee touch your chin was recently found to be the most effective abs exercise.
Core: There are loads of bodyweight exercises for the core, including lots of varieties of plank. My wife has a wheel with two short handles that's awesome for core and back - Amazon do them for about £15.
Dips: You can work out your ankles on the stairs.
Lunges: Good for the quads to help support the knees for running etc.
TRX: My wife has one of these - it's two straps with foot/hand holds on the end that you can shut in a door and there's a fantastic array of exercises that you can do with them. They're a bit pricey, but she uses it loads.
In the winter, I make a circuit up of the above using a Turbo Trainer with my bike and I do that for an hour twice a week. In the summer, when it warms up, then I do CV 6 days a week for fun and either circuits or weights of the above to keep a bit of muscle on me and stop me looking like Mo Farah
Resistance: If you want to put on or retain muscle as well (which can be a good idea for preventing injury doing other sports, or of course just vanity, plus you'll get a small increase in resting metabolic rate with muscle, but it's smaller than most weight training guys claim - IIRC research shows about 10-15% for people who do heavy weights; there are papers online showing these results), then obviously you'll need to do resistance training, which obviously requires a bit more imagination at home. I also quit the gym years ago and do the following for resistance at home:
Chin ups: I bought a bar that screws into a doorway from Argos for about £20-£30. You can get frame things that you can take on and off, but the bar's sturdier, safer and does less damage to the door. Mine's on the study door, where guests never go, and you can't see it from the hallway with the door shut, so it's very discreet.
Press Ups: Obviously you can do these anywhere. Try putting your feet on something for a bit of variation, although be prepared to be told off if you put your feet on the work top
You can even do handstand pressups with your feet on a wall, but work up to these as they're quite hard work and you can pull a shoulder muscle if you're not used to them (as I did once..). You can also vary pressups by changing the distance between your hands, or put your hands together and do a tricep pressup (I'm sure there's a video somewhere on the web for these).Crunches etc - loads on the web for these. The cross crunch where your knee touch your chin was recently found to be the most effective abs exercise.
Core: There are loads of bodyweight exercises for the core, including lots of varieties of plank. My wife has a wheel with two short handles that's awesome for core and back - Amazon do them for about £15.
Dips: You can work out your ankles on the stairs.
Lunges: Good for the quads to help support the knees for running etc.
TRX: My wife has one of these - it's two straps with foot/hand holds on the end that you can shut in a door and there's a fantastic array of exercises that you can do with them. They're a bit pricey, but she uses it loads.
In the winter, I make a circuit up of the above using a Turbo Trainer with my bike and I do that for an hour twice a week. In the summer, when it warms up, then I do CV 6 days a week for fun and either circuits or weights of the above to keep a bit of muscle on me and stop me looking like Mo Farah
RobM77 said:
Art0ir said:
RobM77 said:
I used to have a personal trainer and he was a big fan of them. Definitely, yes. I think if someone wants to lose weight though, rather than training for sports, it's perhaps simpler and easier to start with suggesting some CV. I didn't mean to infer that kettle bells are a bad thing, they're great, it's just that you need to be working to the right intensity and in the right way, and it involves buying stuff, whereas if someone just wants to lose weight it's simplest to get some fresh air and exercise and eat healthily.
Sounds good I didn't mean to run down kettlebells, but losing weight is very simple: you just change your calorie balance so you're burning more than you're eating. You may wish to consider a smartphone app like 'My Fitness Pal' where you can enter in what you eat and what exercise you do and it gives you your calorie balance for the day. What you eat obviously matters in terms of fat and sugar etc, and there's a whole world of science (and mumbo jumbo) to immerse yourself in with that, but for the majority of people the simple answer is to eat a sensible healthy rounded diet and get good regular exercise.
The idea behind kettlebells (and indeed the circuit training that I do - my wife does circuits with kettlenbells for example), is to build and retain muscle as well as keeping fit. The reason this is important is that if you just do CV then you'll become a stick eventually, and that can lead to injuries (as I know all too well..), but for losing weight, yes, calories in vs calories out. You mention cycling, which is awesome as unlike running it's not known for injuries (unless you crash of course!), and you can burn around 600 calories an hour without noticing it, because the cool breeze stops you sweating like a pig and you have scenery and things to look at. In summer I spend about 4 hours a week on the bike, and although I do other things too, even just the cycling means I have to be careful not to lose too much weight!
I didn't mean to run down kettlebells, but losing weight is very simple: you just change your calorie balance so you're burning more than you're eating. You may wish to consider a smartphone app like 'My Fitness Pal' where you can enter in what you eat and what exercise you do and it gives you your calorie balance for the day. What you eat obviously matters in terms of fat and sugar etc, and there's a whole world of science (and mumbo jumbo) to immerse yourself in with that, but for the majority of people the simple answer is to eat a sensible healthy rounded diet and get good regular exercise.The idea behind kettlebells (and indeed the circuit training that I do - my wife does circuits with kettlenbells for example), is to build and retain muscle as well as keeping fit. The reason this is important is that if you just do CV then you'll become a stick eventually, and that can lead to injuries (as I know all too well..), but for losing weight, yes, calories in vs calories out. You mention cycling, which is awesome as unlike running it's not known for injuries (unless you crash of course!), and you can burn around 600 calories an hour without noticing it, because the cool breeze stops you sweating like a pig and you have scenery and things to look at. In summer I spend about 4 hours a week on the bike, and although I do other things too, even just the cycling means I have to be careful not to lose too much weight!
You have stairs, right? Our man gets us using them - along with sit ups, press ups, tricep dips, for example. Up two at a time, down by ones. Up stairs 10 times, 20 sit ups, 20 press ups, 20 tricep dips. Then 8 stairs, 18 of others. 6, 16. 4, 14. 2, 12, 1, 10. Then, if you're not knackered, do it the other way round 
Craikeybaby said:
After 37km on the bike yesterday morning, then working on the garden all afternoon I'm feeling like I've had a much tougher workout than I would have done at the gym!
sounds good!My wife and I just spent the last three days SUPing for 3 hours every morning and then some fairly tough walking for 5 hours each afternoon. The calory balance after the weekend is crazy! (projected 0.5kg loss for both of us, which includes us cooking big meals each evening with wine, having decent food in the day etc). The gym is great for weights and machines, but for CV and weight loss, nothing beats the fresh air, because I don't know anyone who will spend 8 hours a day in the gym doing CV for three days solid
It's a very salient point - most people reach a boredome threshold doing CV after an hour or so in the gym, maybe less, but plenty of people will work at the same level of exertion for several hours if it's a sport or activity outdoors.Craikeybaby said:
SUPing is a great workout! I tried it for a few hours on holiday last year and really ached the next day.
We've just got a really narrow race board (24"!) and the balance is a workout in itself! It's also nice as it works out the core and to some extent the shoulders/arms, so you can SUP for half the day and then walk or cycle for the other half, which is far better for you and less tiring than doing one thing for the entire day.Gassing Station | Health Matters | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff